Shirley Jackson's The Lottery Essays

  • Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery"

    563 Words  | 2 Pages
    Shirley Jackson's The Lotter

    Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" is an excellent example of an allegorical short story. In this story, the reader learns of a town's "lottery" that takes place once a year, every year. It has been a tradition in this small rural town for many years and the villagers never question these activities, they just blindly go along with it. But what the reader doesn't know is just what kind of prize the winner is going to obtain. Jackson's use of symbolism is shown through

  • Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    1443 Words  | 3 Pages

    “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson has been criticized, but its longevity and durability prove it stands the test of time. In the article, “Jackson’s The Lottery,” the author A.R. Coulthard finds a deeper meaning in the story which other critics have not. Coulthard believes the story is a “parable of the evil inherent in human nature” rather than “an assault on mindless cultural conformity,” as other critics have suggested (Coulthard 226). Coulthard shows how something that most likely began as a primitive

  • Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    914 Words  | 2 Pages

    blindly follow a tradition it is bad. In Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery, the townspeople follow the tradition of having the lottery, without really knowing why. The Lottery conveys the theme that, following traditions can be beneficial, but when people follow traditions because they are afraid of change it can be harmful, through imagery, dialogue, symbolism, and irony. Jackson uses imagery a lot to convey her theme in The Lottery. While conducting the lottery Mr. Summers uses a black box to put all

  • Lotteries In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    1544 Words  | 4 Pages

    Lotteries are the picture of money for most people. Lotteries are often viewed as a great thing, winning the lottery means winning cash, but in reality a lottery is just a raffle. It is a process ruled by chance. Winning the lottery could be from the best reward to the cruelest one ever. In 1948, Shirley Jackson wrote the short story “The Lottery” to show there is pointless violence and brutality in humans’ lives and how society accepts it. She used the story to show how people will join senseless

  • Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    957 Words  | 2 Pages

    Shirley Jackson is said to be one of the most “brilliant and influential authors of the twentieth century.” “Her fiction writing is some of the most important to come out of the American literary canon.” (http://shirleyjackson.org/Reviews.html) Jackson wrote many short stories and even some books. They are more on the dark, witchlike side, however. Kelleher explains that Jackson stated in some interviews that she practiced magic. No one really knows if she was serious while practicing witchcraft

  • Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    857 Words  | 2 Pages

    Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery is an effective and unsuspecting horror story told through her elaborate set up with the environment and characters that build up to create a shocking ending. The setting of a small village and its people on a regular summer day leads me to believe that there is nothing to be weary of. This impression follows throughout the story, which makes the ending come much more of a surprise and it isn’t at all what I had anticipated it to be. Jackson creates an unexpected

  • Shirley Jackson's 'The Lottery'

    932 Words  | 2 Pages

    Shirley Jackson's 'The Lottery' The setting in a story helps to form the story and it makes the characters become more interesting. There are three main types of setting. The first is nature and the outdoors, second is objects of human manufacture and construction and the third is cultural conditions and assumptions. These three things help the reader to understand the characters better in Shirley Jackson's 'The Lottery';. 'The Lottery'; is started out by being described as 'The morning of

  • Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    906 Words  | 2 Pages

    at anytime and the most ordinary people can commit them. Jackson's fiction is noted for exploring incongruities in everyday life, and “The Lottery”, perhaps her most exemplary work in this respect, examines humanity's capacity for evil within a contemporary, familiar, American setting. Noting that the story’s characters, physical environment, and even its climactic action lacks significant individuating detail, most critics view “The Lottery.” As a modern-day parable or fable, which obliquely addresses

  • Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    1346 Words  | 3 Pages

    it seems in Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery”. Within the story there are many reoccurring themes, ranging from the townspeople inability to establish bonds to the Jackson’s displaying how easily humans will engage in behavior that is otherwise frowned upon once given an excuse. The most prominent of these themes is the loyalty the townspeople hold towards various items and rituals in their lives. The townspeople hold the utmost loyalty towards their tradition of the lottery. The second

  • Analysis Of Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    718 Words  | 2 Pages

    “The Lottery” depicts an eternal tradition, practiced by villagers, of selecting one member of a family to be murdered. In Shirley Jackson’s riveting short story “The Lottery”, Jackson creates a community that’s rich in tradition, yet lacks historical evidence, making the village’s annual lottery an event to attend. Over the course of the short story, the narrator hints at the apparent discourse of camaraderie for the lottery and as a result the tradition became purposeless. In “The Lottery” by Shirley

  • Symbolism In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    1434 Words  | 3 Pages

    Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery", is a story that is very colorful with symbolism and underlying themes. Centrally, there is a heavy emphasis on following blind traditions no matter what the consequences are, and Utopia and perfect society seem to be the goal of the community where the story is set. Harold Bloom argues that Jackson Hit a universal nerve and suggests that the shock effect achieved by Jason "depends upon tapping into the universal fear of arbitrary condemnation and of sanctioned violence

  • Inhumanity In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    1060 Words  | 3 Pages

    When lotteries come around, people think of good things that happen to them. People believe that winning a lottery can mean hitting the big bucks, winning a car, or even just living a happy life as long as they live. According to Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary, the true definition of a lottery is, “a system used to decide who will get or be given something by choosing names or numbers by chance.” In the case of literary icon, Shirley Jackson’s this system was anything but lucky. “The Lottery”

  • Foreshadowing in Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    1142 Words  | 3 Pages

    Foreshadowing in Shirley Jackson's The Lottery "The Lottery," a short story written by Shirley Jackson, is a tale about a disturbing social practice.  The setting takes place in a small village consisting of about three hundred denizens.  On June twenty-seventh of every year, the members of this traditional community hold a village-wide lottery in which everyone is expected to participate.  Throughout the story, the reader gets an odd feeling regarding the residents and their annual practice

  • Analysis of Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    4600 Words  | 10 Pages

    Shirley Jackson’s famous short story, “The Lottery,” was published in 1948 and remains to this day one of the most enduring and affecting American works in the literary canon. “The Lottery” tells the story of a farming community that holds a ritualistic lottery among its citizens each year. Although the text initially presents audiences with a close-knit community participating in a social event together on a special day, the shocking twist at the work’s end—with the death of the lottery’s “winner”

  • Analyzing Shirley Jackson's 'The Lottery'

    968 Words  | 2 Pages

    ​In "The Lottery," author Shirley Jackson establishes a great contrast between the normal cheeriness of everyday life with a deeply morose, corrupted practice. The shocking turn towards death startles readers, effectively causing them to question the function of tradition within a society. In Jackson's "The Lottery," the author uses emblematic characterization, discordant imagery, and morbid symbolism; illustrating that unquestioned tradition can lead to stubborn resistance to change and moral decay

  • Irony In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    659 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Lottery Analysis In Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery, took place in a small town where villagers were gathered around the town center. The townspeople were waiting for the lottery which took place every year. The heads from each families had to draw a paper from the black box which determine life or death. After the first round no one got the marked paper, so they began a second round between a family who complained there was cheating. When 4 of the 5 members opened up their paper and noticed

  • Flaws In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    1014 Words  | 3 Pages

    Humans, as a species, are flawed in the deepest sense of the word. Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” satirizes many of these flaws. In her piece, she details a town’s tradition of gathering together once a year to have a ‘lottery’. In this lottery, each the head of each family draws a piece of paper from a black box. If the head draws a paper with a black dot in the middle, each member of the family will draw from a smaller selection of papers, once of which has a black dot in the middle. Whoever draws

  • Humanity In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    651 Words  | 2 Pages

    unquestioned schedule? Humans do as they are told and believe what they hear without thinking otherwise. Inferred in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, humanity follows orders like sheep, chained to the rhythm of everyday life, which in the end takes an innocents person’s life. The idea of following orders blindly can easily be seen in Jackson’s “The Lottery”. The citizens in the “The Lottery” are seen getting ready for a mysterious ceremony that, the reader later finds out, none of the citizens know the

  • Analysis of Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    506 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery,” the theme of the story is dramatically illustrated by Jackson’s unique tone. Once a year the villagers gather together in the central square for the lottery. The villagers await the arrival of Mr. Summers and the black box. Within the black box are folded slips of paper, one piece having a black dot on it. All the villagers then draw a piece of paper out of the box. Whoever gets the paper with the black dot wins. Tessie Hutchinson wins the lottery! Everyone then

  • Tradition In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    1413 Words  | 3 Pages

    Shirley Jackson is a powerful American short-story writer and novelist around the mid-1900's, and through her story, "The Lottery," she became famous when it was published in 1948, and yet she also received many criticisms for its horror tale. After being published in The New Yorker, many subscribers sent back negative reviews arguing that “The Lottery” was attacking the values of citizens in laid-back communities. In the story, the society is set in a small village with a town square which is the